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SSRIs may double risk of gastrointestinal bleeding

New research shows that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), a group of drugs commonly used to treat depression, may double the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding, according to researchers from Wake Forest University School of Medicine and colleagues.

9 Oct 2007

Potential new treatment for Huntington's disease found

MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegererative Disorders (MIND) researchers have identified a compound that may lead to a treatment that could protect against the effects of Huntington's Disease (HD).

9 Oct 2007

Adding nitric oxide to blood in blood banks may preserve life giving properties

Researchers in the United States say one of the reasons why many patients do not do well after blood transfusions is because donated blood rapidly loses some of its life-saving properties.

8 Oct 2007

Half of the world has no access to palliative care

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has issued a guide on palliative care for people with the advanced stages of cancer.

8 Oct 2007

Joint effort means 750,000 of the world's poor will have acess to TB drugs

Thanks to a partnership between the World Health Organisation (WHO) and an international initiative, anti-tuberculosis drugs will now be available to people in poor countries.

8 Oct 2007

Warnings about drugs used with ultrasounds

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is reportedly about to issue "blackbox" warnings for drugs used to enhance the images of ultrasound machines in the diagnosing of heart problems.

8 Oct 2007

Increase in ATV injuries triggers questions on their safety

A new study says that all-terrain vehicle (ATV) and the injuries incurred driving them have resulted in an average of 19 people a day ending up in hospital emergency departments (ED) in Ontario.

8 Oct 2007

Latest death in Indonesia from bird flu takes toll up to 87

The Indonesian health ministry says the 44-year-old woman was from Pekan Baru city on Sumatra, and was apparently treated for fever at several hospitals before finally being admitted to Arifin Achmad hospital on October 4th where she died the following day.

8 Oct 2007

British man in coma after being bitten by mosquito in the U.S.

A man in Britain is in a coma after being bitten by a mosquito carrying a rare and potentially fatal virus.

8 Oct 2007

What does the appendix do? finally an answer!

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center say that the function of the frequently discarded appendix, an organ often credited with little importance and often dismissed as having no significant function, does it seems have a role to play after all.

8 Oct 2007

White baking chocolate tainted with salmonella latest U.S. food scare

In yet another food scare in the United States salmonella is again involved, this time the culprit is baking chocolate.

8 Oct 2007

Wyeth Pharmaceuticals to acquire Haptogen

Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, a division of Wyeth has announced the signing of a definitive agreement under which it has acquired Haptogen Ltd., a Scottish company based in Aberdeen that is focused on the discovery of biopharmaceutical therapies.

8 Oct 2007

Researchers restore memory process in fragile X syndrome

University of California, Irvine scientists have discovered how to reverse the learning and memory problems inherent in the most common form of mental impairment.

8 Oct 2007

Carbon nanotubes show great potential for use as cellular probes

As "nanopipes" they can be used to transport liquids to or from cells and inject solutions or drugs directly into individual cells and individual organelles within the cells.

8 Oct 2007

Reservoir of Marburg virus identified in a species of fruit bat

The Marburg virus, like its fearsome cousin Ebola, belongs to the Filoviridae family. It carries the name of the German town where it was first detected in 1967, after a mysterious epidemic had hit employees of the Behring laboratory.

8 Oct 2007

Study finds almost one-third of children take vitamins

Almost one-third of U.S. children take some form of dietary supplement, most often multivitamins and multiminerals, according to a study conducted in part by researchers at RTI International and the Office of Dietary Supplements at the National Institutes of Health.

8 Oct 2007

Diabetic neuropathy costs $3.65 billion per year in health-related lost productive time

Workers who have diabetes with neuropathic symptoms such as numbness or tingling in feet or hands lose the equivalent of 1.4 hours a week or $3.65 billion per year in health-related lost productive time, a recent study finds.

8 Oct 2007

Small papillary thyroid cancers are NOT clinically insignificant

Patients with micropapillary thyroid cancer - small tumors equal to or less than 1 centimeter—and tumors even smaller, less than 1 millimeter (mm - are more common and not without a risk as previously thought, according to a new study presented at the 78th Annual Meeting of the American Thyroid Association (ATA) in New York.

8 Oct 2007

Dual action anthrax vaccine-antitoxin combination developed

The immune response generated in rats by the new agent protects against lethal toxin exposure after only one injection, and is faster and stronger than any currently available vaccine.

8 Oct 2007

Researchers tackle phantom sounds of tinnitus

For the more than 50 million Americans who experience the phantom sounds of tinnitus -- ringing in the ears that can range from annoying to debilitating -- certain well-trained rats may be their best hope for finding relief.

8 Oct 2007